MAKE IN INDIA?

lift helicopters. The AH-64E is the world’s most advanced attack helicopter and will replace the IAF’s older Mi-25 and Mi-35 gunships. The CH-47F will replace the IAF’s Mi-26 heavy-lift helicopters. These should start arriving by 2019.

When it comes to light helicopters, HAL’s production record is much better, beginning with several hundred licence-manufactured Chetak (Aérospatiale SA316B Alouette III) and Cheetah (Aérospatiale SA315B Lama) helicopters. Since 2002, HAL has been producing ALH Dhruv that it designed and developed and it has already delivered a couple of hundred of these to the three services and other customers. HAL also decided to produce an armed version of the Dhruv, christened Rudra. The Rudra, also known as ALH-WSI or ALH Mk-IV, is the country’s first indigenous armed helicopter. HAL has orders for 76 Rudras – 60 for the Army and 16 for the IAF.

This is the 75th year of HAL’s existence during which it hopes to attain two major milestones on the road to self-sufficiency. One, the maiden flight of its indigenous LUH is expected shortly. It will have an operating range of 350 km and payload capacity of 500 kg at sea level, dropping to 75 kg at its ceiling of 6,000 m. Field trials are expected by the year end, final operational clearance (FOC) by 2017 and launch of series production in 2018. Of the 187 machines ordered, 65 are for the IAF and the rest for the Army, with deliveries scheduled to be completed by 2024-25.

Secondly, HAL’s 5.8-tonne indigenously designed and built multi-role light combat helicopter (LCH) is expected to obtain FOC in the coming weeks. According to HAL Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) T. Suvarna Raju, the “LCH is the only attack helicopter which can operate at 10,000 to 12,000 feet altitude with considerable armament load.” Weapons trials are planned later this year. In January, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of HAL’s new military helicopter production facility in Tumakuru, 74 km north of Bengaluru. In another decade, India’s three services could be flying over 600 indigenously designed and built helicopters. ety of configurations. While the passenger model carries seven, the transporter can lift one tonne internally. It is powered by twin 580 hp FADEC-equipped Arrius 2G1 engines manufactured by French company Turbomeca which enables the helicopter to land or take-off safely if one engine fails. The coaxial main rotor system and absence of a tail rotor not only makes it safer on the ground and in the air, but also makes it possible to use the Ka226T in spaces with limited room for manoeuvre, as the fuselage does not extend beyond the area swept by the rotors.

The IAF would have welcomed a private sector partner for Russian Helicopters to compete with HAL, but ultimately HAL was selected. The Russians ostensibly feared intellectual property loss if they partnered a non-state company and they could not identify a private party with experience in helicopter manufacture. Strangely enough, HAL will now make the Ka-226T and LUH that fall in broadly similar categories, effectively competing with itself. But HAL is only the lead integrator and hopefully will include one or more private sector players too. The Ka226T contract includes full life-cycle and integrated support, the absence of which has soured many previous Indo-Russian deals. Currently the ‘Make in India’ requirement of building 50 per cent of the Ka-226T in India is emerging as a major challenge. According to the agreement, Russia must only indigenise Russian components, whereas the Indian Government will have to negotiate with Turbomeca for the engines and with other global suppliers for the helicopter’s avionics and other key systems. The process may not be smooth. India’s Bharat Forge is likely to tie up with Turbomeca to assemble the engines locally.

India is one of the largest defence markets in the world, but only as an importer. Indeed, it was the world’s largest arms importer from 2010 to 2014, accounting for 15 per cent of the global total. And even the 30 per cent indigenous production is often mere licensed assembly. For instance, engines, the most expensive part of any aircraft, are almost entirely imported.

That may change with HAL recently tasked to design and develop the 1,200 kW Hindustan turboshaft engine (HTSE1200) which can be used for the LUH and LCH in twin-engine configuration. According to Defence Minister Parrikar, India requires between 4,000 and 6,000 helicopter engines over the next 15 to 20 years, so if this engine is successful it can help HAL capture a large slice of the market.

While HAL’s helicopter ambitions and the major Kamov project are in the news, there are some rather more modest endeavours that may be scaled up in future. For instance, in July 2015, Boeing and Tata Advanced Systems (TASL) announced the setting up of a joint venture in Hyderabad to manufacture aero-structures for the AH-64 Apache. TASL already makes cabins for Sikorsky’s S-92, a twin-engine medium-lift helicopter for civil and military roles. Indeed, helicopters offer an attractive route for private industry to get into the act and provide a boost to ‘Make in India’.

The revised Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) due in April is expected to give preference to a new category called ‘Buy Indian – Indigenously Designed, Developed and Manufactured ( IDDM)’, underscoring the importance of genuine indigenisation. Although private industry will have to rely on licence-production under the guidance of a foreign OEM, to begin with, it could conceivably fulfil the IDDM criteria later.

If the various measures introduced bear fruit, especially the welcome efforts to encourage indigenous production, there may soon be a sea change in the supply of military helicopters in the country. And hopefully the crippling shortages of today will never recur.